Parent’s expectation of sexuality education: implications for teacher education

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Parent’s expectation of Sexuality education: implications for teacher

education

by

Lineo Mapetla-Nogela

Dissertation

submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree

MAGISTER ARTIUM (Higher Education Studies)

in the

Faculty of Education

School of Higher Education Studies

at the

University of the Free State

Bloemfontein

Supervisor: Prof D Francis

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DECLARATION

I, the undersigned, sincerely declare that this dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the degree:

Magister Artium

is original and entirely my own work, except where other sources have been acknowledged. I also certify that this dissertation has not previously been submitted at this or any other faculty or institution.

I hereby cede copyright of this thesis in favour of the University of the Free State.

Lineo Mapetla-Nogela

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To God be All Glory and Honour. Thixo ulilanga lethu,uyakhanya phezu kwethu! I am nothing without you Lord.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to Professor Dennis Francis for his wisdom, guidance, patience and faith in me. This has truly been a journey for me, one that I wouldn’t have realised had it not been for his unwavering support and infectious passion for youth sexuality and social justice and for so generously sharing his time and knowledge with me.

Many thanks to my dear friend Rethabile Kolobe for her availability, for being my sounding board throughout this entire process and her editorial work, I am truly grateful. I must acknowledge all my other friends, particularly those in Bloemfontein who would pick up my Aya from school and keep her at their homes on weekends that I had to be on campus, I truly am thankful. I am indebted to my prayer group for carrying me in their prayers every Wednesday, their encouragement and steadfast support.

To my entire family, thank you for all your love, support and encouragement, I love you all dearly.

Dedication

To my darling husband, Wiseman Lwando Nogela and my beautiful daughter Ayachulumanca Melemo Nogela. Thank you love for being proud of me even before the first chapter was drafted. Thank you for believing in me more than I believe in myself, supporting me and encouraging me at all times with the utmost kindness and frankness. My beautiful Aya, mommy’s finally done “colouring” and is ready for us to “spend some time”. Thank you

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Nkosazana ya MaJola for being patient with me and allowing me to do this, Enkosi Nkosazana ka Tata!

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Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction

In this chapter I will introduce my research topic and outline the motivation for this study. I will outline the background and provide its relevance to my study. I will also outline the methodology I used to conduct my study highlighting the aim, research questions and the objectives that guided me.

1.2 Background and contextualising the study

The South African Department of Education, in cooperation with the Department of Health and Welfare, developed the National Policy on HIV and AIDS Education in 1995 (Visser 2005: 206). The goals of the national policy according to Visser (2005:206) were to make available relevant and necessary information about HIV and AIDS in order to decrease its spread; to advance life skills as a mandated program that would enable and promote healthy conduct amongst young people by helping them learn how to communicate and make healthy behavioural decisions; and to inculcate a mindfulness and acceptance of those living with HIV and AIDS among young people thereby creating safe spaces that are tolerant to all. Clearly the objective of this policy was to provide an answer to the HIV and AIDS pandemic in South Africa, with a subsequent life skills curriculum being formulated to provide safe sex education to all learners and help alleviate this pandemic ( Francis, 2010).

Five years later, the Outcomes-based Education (OBE) was introduced with sexuality education becoming a compulsory part of the Life Orientation (LO) learning area (Francis, 2011). This was primarily included because it was found that the youth are amongst the most affected and infected group by this epidemic. According to the Joint United Nations Program

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on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS (2003) annual report, approximately 10.3 million young people aged 15–25 were infected and living with HIV/AIDS. These statistics account for a staggering 7,000 of these young people becoming infected daily with HIV. The devastating effects of this situation was that 12.1 million children became orphaned, 90 percent by this pandemic.

Sub-Saharan Africa was reported to be the worst hit region globally by this pandemic and home to 70 percent of youth globally infected with HIV/AIDS in the identified 15–24 age group. South Africa remains vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection, pregnancy and early sexual activity (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, 2010) with a substantially high number of adolescents engaging in sexual activity between the ages of 10 and 15 (Tiendrebéogo, Meije & Engleberg, 2003). Tiendrebéogo et.al, (2003) however postulate that young people offer a prospect for curbing this situation because they are responsive and malleable to change. Their age and that they are impressionable creates a window of opportunity that could perhaps be lost if it’s not taken advantage of. The statistics and the malleability at this age group prompted the department of Education to respond accordingly.

According to Naidoo (2006), an area that is crucial to the overall development of a human being is their sexuality. Development in this area which largely happens through education is about awareness of issues of ones sexuality and deepening ones understanding through which attitudes beliefs and values are then moulded, an enduring endeavour of individual or human development.

A newspaper article quoted the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga telling parents that they should take responsibility for educating their children about sexuality issues and not “pass the buck” (Sunday Times, 2012). This was in response to high pregnancy rates among

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teenage girls in schools in South Africa. Statistics SA reported in 2012 that 160754 female learners had become pregnant in the period July 2008 and July 2010.

Abraham and Wight (1996) seem to agree with the minister that the home should take a leading role in driving and promoting programmes aimed at advancing healthy sexual behaviour amongst the youth. They however argue that this does not negate the fact that offering sexual health education before the minimum school leaving age, meaning targeting the adolescent population in the school is in fact a more expansive and an all-inclusive way of tackling this issue. They highlight issues of uniformity and universality which they consider key when speaking of young people and attempting to alter their behaviour because of peer influences associated with this phase.

Mncube (2009: 84), highlights the attention that parental involvement in education has been receiving in recent times. He offers Epstein’s model of parental involvement which he uses to reinforce the idea that communication within the education system should take place between the home and the school, reflecting the need for corporation between families and schools. He argues that teachers that have a working relationship with parents have a better understanding of their learners and find creative and new ways of resolving classroom challenges and experiences as opposed to predictable solutions, and are able to co-create shared meaning and understanding with parents and learners. Parents that assume a more active and involved role are said to develop a deeper sense and appreciation of their role. Positive academic accomplishments and a variety of other commendable academic outcomes, including higher grade-points averages have been associated with parental participation and contribution (Mncube 2009: 84). I agree that the association between

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parents and schools will create a better understanding of the objectives of teaching this subject and critical the need of sexuality education.

The Protecting the Right to Innocence: Conference on Sexuality Education (2001) report highlights the importance of adopting a multi-sectoral response to what Naidoo (2006) postulates above. The consensus that was reached at this conference was that indeed sexuality education offered in the school has a crucial role to play in terms of equipping young people with skills and knowledge in order for them to be able to make healthy choices concerning their sexuality, but that this must be supported with an adoption of a robust multi-sectoral strategy involving all relevant role-players who bring to the table diverse expertise in the sexual development of a child, and are able to communicate these effectively. Parents, the schooling system, and the community at large are some of the stakeholders that were identified for this critical role (The report on the Protecting the Right to Innocence: Conference on Sexuality Education, 2001:17).

Schaalma et.al (2004) asserts that those tasked with promoting healthy behaviour amongst the youth ought to adopt more radical ways of ensuring that their goals and objectives are realised. Galvanising parents support for an all-inclusive sex education could be a way of ensuring that there’s agreement in terms of what should be taught as well as across the board acceptance of what is delivered in terms of the sexuality programmes designed for and delivered to the youth. This political activism approach according to Schaalma et.al (2004) could perhaps be the only way in some instances to garner support and engage with the evidence-based practice and demand that sexuality be taught comprehensively to the youth.

Suggesting that young people be educated on healthy romantic sexual relationships and how to handle themselves in such relationships according to Kirby (2002), is a source of great

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controversy where even the idea that they be taught about competent condom and contraceptive use is often met with resistance because of differing views and ongoing debates within the society on these matters. Parents and members of the community often times hold differing views to those held by the learning institutions where sexuality education is concerned and these differing views often lead to challenges within schools making it difficult for the teachers and institutions to provide correct and truthful material to the learners (Thavea & Leao, 2012: 88). The widely held belief that sex education promotes sexual activity among the youth as opposed to educating them about health sexual practices continues to pervade communities and this is an unfortunate impediment to the optimal execution and delivery of the life skills programme (Thavea & Leao, 2012: 89).

The intentions of the government and the country at large in responding to the challenges that the children face are very noble, but fall short where parents seem to be the weak link, an observation that refutes what Schaalma et.al (2004) above propose, but could be handled by health promotion planners adopting a political activism in their approach.

As part of a team of researchers from The University of the Free State that facilitated workshops for educators on how to teach sexuality to their Life Orientation (LO) learners, the role of parents was a recurring concern amongst the teachers. Teachers reported that they often found themselves in a precarious situation where they knew they had to teach the subject matter but were always wary of the parent’s reaction which sometimes saw parents coming to the schools and confronting the teachers and accusing them of leading their children astray (Teaching & Learning Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education TALSHA, 2013). This is reinforced in Francis’s (2010) paper in which he states that talking about sexuality with young learners is an anxiety inducing experience for some teachers as they become frightened that

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they may be accused of encouraging sexual activity by parents despite multitudes of research refuting this belief.

As a mother myself this area of research and indeed the Colloquium stirred up a lot of questions in me. I found myself wondering how my own sexual development would have been influenced had my parents had an opportunity to engage on the level being recommended today around this subject. I found myself also reflecting quite deeply on how I would have to address these issues with my own child and this made it critical for me to undertake this study as it offers me the opportunity to explore what the possibilities are for me and indeed others like me raising young children. This work also made me to thoroughly examine how I was raised and the taboos associated with talk of sexuality particularly across generations, and I really hoped the study would shed some light and insights for me personally on how parents view these issues today and if indeed shifts are beginning to take place amongst them. I was raised in a very patriarchal very conservative and religious home and indeed community. Sexuality has never been openly discussed with me by those older than me and I have never had the courage to raise this issue with anyone older than me. So personally this study serves to answer personal questions and address personal issues, which are inherently imbedded within it for me.

It is therefore against this background that I undertook this study. The research offered an opportunity for me to engage parents of grade 10 learners to get an understanding of what their expectations are of sexuality education offered as an area of the Life Orientation (LO) learning area. The assumptions I made embarking on this study and engaging the parents of Grade 10 learners were that in Grade 10, learners are developing physically and are aware of matters relating to sexuality. This assumption was supported by the Curriculum Assessment

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Policy Statements (CAPS) document which at grade 10 level, for the Life Orientation specifically focuses on the development of the self within society and it is in this part of the curriculum that issues of sexuality are dealt with.

1.3 Problem Statement and research questions

An African proverb whose exact derivation has been lost in time states that “it takes the whole village to raise a child.” The report, The Protecting the Right to Innocence: Conference on Sexuality Education (2001; 17), asserts that a responsive approach will be one that taps into the strengths of all those that have a vested interest in this cause who can offer effective assistance in directing the sexual choices of young people along a healthier path. This assertion echoes this African proverb and speaks to a cohesive approach required to address the teaching of sexuality in South African schools. The urgent need for programmes geared towards curbing sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) and unintended pregnancies in the adolescent population is undisputed. However, what remains contentious according to Tiendrebéogo, Meijer & Engleberg, (2003) is agreements in terms of what such programmes’ intentions ought to be and what topics are to be addressed and covered therein. These contentions are raised by the lack of clear and specific guidelines at provincial level because the life skills curriculum and its guidelines were centralised in their development and provinces were tasked with customising these themselves at provincial level which left a lot of room for ambiguity. (Tiendrebéogo, Meijer & Engleberg, 2003).

Sexuality education remains a contested, highly debated and often polarised issue in South Africa. Francis (2011) states that there are few objections from parents and schools to sex education in its current form, but there seems to be disconcertion’s where content and approach are concerned. There seems to be a will on the part of government who is the

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custodian of policies, however, too much room is left for flexibility because the curriculum has been found not to offer specifics for practice (Francis, 2011). This is supported by Thaver and Leao, (2012), who assert that the inconsistencies and contestations came about because the policy documents function primarily as guidelines for schools but are not definite. The programme was not set out to be a universal, uniform cast-in-stone handbook but was designed to offer guidance so that specific programmes could be designed in the different schools throughout South Africa to address specific needs (Thaver and Leao, 2012:88), an issue that compromises therefore uniformity and universality which in turn causes disagreements.

According to Thaver and Leao (2012), educators struggle with the implementation of this curriculum because of the disapproval and obstruction by parents, churches and communities as a result of the lack of clarity and agreement on these issues. Studies show that teachers are challenged when having to deliver this section of the curriculum as they report that it not only conflicts with the beliefs and values of the societies in which they find themselves operating but even their personal ones. These teachers therefore constantly find themselves in a quandary having to interrogate whether to address this prescribed and mandated area within LO or to conform to societal norms, beliefs and values and indeed those they personally hold (Thaver & Leao, 2012:88). This was certainly found to be the case at a recent training session facilitated by the University of the Free State for Free State teachers. Teachers at this two day workshop reported that they were constantly challenged and confronted by parents coming to the schools and accusing them of teaching their children ‘things that would get them “wild”’ (Teaching & Learning Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education (TALSHA), 2013) at the Sexuality, Society and Pedagogy Colloquium where papers were presented by academics from Universities from all over South Africa on how sexuality should be taught in South African

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schools and spoke extensively about how government policies could perhaps be strengthened to speak to the proposed pedagogical approaches, not a single paper addressed the needs or concerns of parents.

1.4 Aim of the Study

My study therefore contributes to this emerging field by exploring and gaining insight into the perspectives and expectations of parents on the teaching of sexuality in schools and what implications these would then have on teacher education.

1.4.1 Significance of this study

My study will contribute significantly into this body of work as it gives a voice to parents who have until now not been heard in the South African context. It is significant to the extent that it highlights a very critical stakeholder within the sexuality education field and will hopefully shed light on how to involve them and utilise the assets they bring to this discourse.

1.5 Research Questions

In order to effectively address this issue the following questions were formulated:

• Whom do parents want to teach sexuality education?

• What do parents want from sexuality education?

• How do parents want sexuality education to be taught?

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1.6 The following objectives guided the research:

• To determine how involved parents, as one of the most integral stakeholders to this programme are in its formulation.

• To explore what parents want to see emerge out of sexuality education.

• To explore the environment that parents’ perceptions are formed in that inform their views

• To explore who and why parents think will be good teachers of sexuality education.

• To explore what the implications of the findings of this study are for teacher education.

1.7 Research methods

The data for my study were collected using in-depth interviews and a focus group with parents of grade 10 learners in schools in Bloemfontein. Using two methods allowed for triangulation so that I could see whether responses provided in individual interviews differed from those elicited in the group session.

1.8 Chapter Overview

Chapter 1 introduced the research topic and contextualised this study. The chapter outlined

the impetus for this study and provided rationale and significance of the study. In this chapter I set out the aim of the study, the research questions as well as the objectives that underpinned the study.

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Chapter 2 introduced literature on sexuality education. In this chapter I detailed the evolution

of sexuality education and the significance of its evolution in response to societal challenges. I look at studies on parents’ involvement in the teaching of sexuality education. This chapter also highlights critical factors that influence or have been known to influence the teaching of sexuality education in the schools. The theoretical frameworks that underpin this study were also introduced in this chapter in which I use Wenger’s theory of Communities of Practice (CoPs) and Ladson-Billings Culturally Relevant Pedagogies to understand how sexuality education can be addressed collectively by all stakeholders.

In Chapter 3 the research methodology is detailed. In this section I discussed the methodological orientation of the study. I provided a rationale of the methodologies opted for and explained my decisions regarding the sample, data gathering strategies, data analysis and ethical considerations.

In Chapter 4 I present the findings of the study with the individual in-depth interviews and the focus group being the sources of data. This chapter presents the expectations of parents on sexuality education in the schools.

Chapter 5, presents and analyses the data collected and shows how the Communities of

Practice and culturally relevant pedagogies frameworks, provided in chapter 2, were applied in the data analysis. This chapter also relates the findings to the literature that was detailed in chapter two.

Chapter 6 summarises the study and contains the recommendations, followed by the

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1.9 Conclusion

This chapter introduced the readers to the research problem, and gave the background and rationale for the study. In the last section, I gave an overview of the chapter structure of the study. The next chapter provides the literature studied in an attempt to gain insight into this area and also details the theoretical framework that underpins the study.

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2 Literature on Sexuality Education

2.1 Introduction

This study attempts to establish parents’ expectation of sexuality education and in attempting to do so, it raises as one of its pertinent questions whether sexuality education should take place at school or in the home. This question in particular echoes the Minister of Education, Angie Motsekga’s instruction that sexuality education should take place in the home and not in the school. The Honourable Minister made it clear that “Teenage pregnancy is a problem imported to schools by homes and the community. But that it’s a departmental problem for their department. They don’t make sex at schools, they make sex at homes. This is a problem. There is something wrong that it now becomes my problem. We don’t provide beds, we provide pens and books” (City Press, 2012: 61). Therefore in this chapter I will attempt to demonstrate through literature the evolution of sexuality education and explain how we arrived at the point where we are debating where the teaching of sexuality education should take place. I will focus on (1) literature on parents in relation to sexuality education and also (2) look into different parenting practices and (3) the gendered nature of sex education offered by parents to their children and how these affect the teaching of sexuality education in the home and influences what parents then expect from the schools. Literature and research point to fundamental challenges to the effective teaching of sexuality education both in schools and in the home and it is for this reason that culture, politics and religion will be addressed as they are often found to be inhibiters in this regard.

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The study is grounded in two theories, Wenger’s theory of communities of practice and Ladson-Billings theory of culturally relevant pedagogy and these theories will be introduced next.

Communities of practice have been described as groups brought together by a common interest, who come together because of their desire to learn about something or find solutions to a particular problem or concern and because of their constant interactions as they attempt to find solutions to whatever problem they face, find themselves engaged in deep learning from one another and sharing of their different expertise (Wenger, 2002: 229). My interest is on parents who are being instructed by the Honourable Minister to take up the responsibility of educating their children on sexuality matters and will inadvertently be entering an established community of practice. This study will thus pay particular attention to the application of theories on ways in which new people enter into established communities as they attempt to find solutions to challenges they face (Wenger, 2002). In this instance therefore my interest is in how as proposed by the minister parents ought to enter into the established community (school system) where in particular sexuality education is addressed. Culturally relevant pedagogy as conceptualised by Ladson-Billings (1994), is a critical pedagogy that is unambiguously dedicated to collective empowerment as opposed to the empowerment of an individual. This is a pedagogy whose aim is to endow and empower learners by taking into account and utilising their culture to enrich their academic experience on an intellectual, social, emotional, and political level. Ladson-Billing (1994) emphasises a pedagogy that is cognisant of leaners’ cultures and ensures that educators build links between what happens in the classrooms and in the home, whilst fulfilling the requirements of the school and national program. This pedagogy taps into the assets that the learners bring into the class room in the form of knowledge, and experiences and backgrounds which then

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apprise teachers’ teachings and practice. These issues are critical as they frame the study and become critical as tools of analysis (chapter five).

2.2 Why the need for Sexuality Education?

According to Zain Al Dien, (2010) educators and policy makers are significantly challenged at currently to ensure that young people become productive, are responsible, caring and healthy. To ensure this it is imperative that schools, formal and informal not only prioritise the intellect but also begin to address other aspects of the young people’s education. These aspects include, but are not limited to the young people acquiring knowledge, shaping their attitudes and imparting to them requisite skills, progressive health promotion programmes together with sex education aimed at the development of positive social and sexual behaviour. For this reason matters of sex education for the youth have been of particular interest for both researchers and policy makes for the past thirty years.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2010) sexuality is an important developmental aspect for everyone. This includes the right for everyone to be given sexual information. This is particularly important for the youth to develop a sense of their values and beliefs about relationships and sexuality and are able to make healthy decisions concerning their sex lives. WHO (2010) continues that whether sexuality education occurs in schools or at home, it should be more comprehensive than the simple provision of information. Sexuality education, according to WHO, is multidimensional based on the definition proposed above. It aims to achieve positive results which are gratifying for the youth and advances a healthy sexual transition into adulthood. At the same time it pays attention to the avoidance of negative results such as early sexual debut, unwanted pregnancies and STIs/HIV infections.

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As WHO (2010) makes reference to the home this has implication for how parents teach their children about sexuality education.

2.3 The evolution of sexuality Education

School-based sexuality education has its history starting in pre Second World War where mention is made from the 1920s where topics covered were about respect, self-discipline, modesty and lessons on boys. These lessons were offered to senior students as they were being prepared to join the world of work and were supplemented with talks on temptations pervading the factories as well as life in the workshops, with particular focus on sex (Reiss, 2005:1). According to Reiss (2005), a significant shift came after the Second World War, with migration in particular that of soldiers, resulting in an upsurge in the occurrence of STI’s. The eruption of war seems to have propelled sex education in schools and added another dimension to the overall intentions of sex education to include lessons on prevention of syphilis and gonorrhoea. Actively addressing sexuality and sex evolved in the schooling system and has over the years responded to societal changes to today where HIV/STI, high pregnancy rates, early sexual debut and sexual violence have characterised societies.

Increasingly though, based on research there has been a shift where conversations have shifted from what needs to be taught in sexuality education classes to now questioning whether schools are the appropriate platforms to address this issue and whether parents or teachers should be the sexuality educators.

Parents are central to the health of their children in terms of influencing the children’s health decisions and choices. Research highlights the fact that children that report to converse with their parents on sexual matters’ relationships are much stronger with the parents and are most likely to postpone sex, engage in sex with fewer people and use contraceptives such as

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condoms and other birth control methods when they do have sex (Planned Parenthood, 2012). The United States, which for all intents and purposes can be considered a pioneer in providing sexuality education within schools, has found that parental involvement in sex education increases contraceptive use. Moreover, young people who have had sex discussions with parents have reduced risks of being infected with sexually transmitted infections (Zhang, Li, Shah, Baldwin and Stanton, 2007).

In Greece according to Kirana, Nakopoulou, Akrita & Papaharitou (2007), contribution of parents in young people’s sex education has been gaining attention lately with numerous theories of cognitive development being used to accentuate how the family can participate in the development of the children’s behaviour and have in particular examined how families can offer assistance where youth sexual behaviour is concerned. China has drawn on the experience of America and other western nations, where they note that parental–adolescent communication where sexual matters are concerned has shown reduced risky sexual activities and behaviours among young people and have concluded that knowledge and values concerning sexuality can be conveyed and imparted at home (Zhang et.al, 2007). The Thai government in responding to surge in sexual activity amongst the youth in Thailand has emphasised response to this by raising public awareness about the importance of sex education in the home but recognises that adolescents struggle to talk to their parents about sexuality matters and that the parents still feel disinclined and lack self-assurance and the skills necessary to speak to their teenage children about sex (Sridawruang, Pfeil, & Crozier, 2010). Sridawruang et.al (2010) assert that parents remain the fundamental source of information where their children are concerned and that granted the opportunity to engage in good open discussions with their parents, adolescents can see increased contraceptive use and reduced numbers of sexual partners.

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According to Kirana et.al (2007), reduced sexual risk-taking behaviour is a direct result of high levels of parental monitoring based on research findings. The same studies have found that when there is open communication on sexuality issues in the family, teenagers assume more responsibility regarding their sexual behaviour (Kirana et.al, 2007). The conclusion that emerges from these studies is that when sex education is provided in the home by parents, it influences the age at which sexual activity is initiated and more optimal use of contraceptives.

Evidence provided above is a strong indication that parental involvement in the teaching of sexuality education does yield positive results for adolescents and indeed for societies. What is a challenge though is that most of these studies regarding parental-youth communication on sex matters are focused more and provide evidence of investigations carried out in developed countries in the west and very few amongst less developed nations (Zhang et. al 2007). Moreover, as is in the case of Thailand, despite the changes in behavioural norms, values that are acceptable in most developing countries are those that perpetuate the importance of sexual innocence among youth, in particular females and discourage interest in sex or openly talking about sexuality. This perpetuation of traditional values in light of and in spite of shifting behavioural norms disadvantages the youth by missing an opportunity to arm them with the required skills and information of how to handle their sexuality and direct their lives (Zhang et. al 2007).

Sexuality education is finding itself today in most developing nations where politics, religion and culture intersect. These have often times been reported to be the greatest obstructions towards effective and efficient programmes being conceptualised and delivered.

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2.4 Parental Practices

Family plays a key role in promoting the health and wellbeing of adolescent (Vandenhoudt, Miller, Ochura, Wyckoff, Obong'o, Otwoma, Poulsen, Menten, Marum, & Buvé, 2010', World Health Organisation, 1999). Extensive research from Western countries highlights the effect that parents have on their children's sexual risk-taking behaviour, demonstrating a strong link between parenting practices such as parental monitoring, positive reinforcement, and effective conversations between parents and the youth about sexual issues and reduced adolescent sexual risk-behaviour (Vandenhoudt, et. al, 2010). According to Todd, Fisher, Hill & Walker (2008), extensive parent-child research points to the fact that family influences and how families parent their children are major factors that influence directly or indirectly the levels of development of risky behaviours amongst the youth where sexuality is concerned. These influences range from genetic makeup of the child, how the family is structured, the parenting style of the parents, whether the parents and children emotionally bond, and the practices of the family. These factors have also been found to influence youthful sexual behaviours such as sex debut and contraceptive use (Todd et.al, 2008). Being skilled, comfortable and confident in communication has been defined in scientific literature as parental “responsiveness”. Differences in communication patterns have been well documented in the parenting literature and are called “parenting styles.” Parenting styles are based upon the work of Baumrind (1967), who noted three patterns of parental control and parental support which are authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive styles (Kotchick, Dorsey & Heller, 2005). When communicating about sexuality, parents who are authoritarian in style are likely to be directive, negative, and judgmental. This communication style is similar to techniques used in abstinence-only sexuality education. When communicating about sexuality, parents who are democratic in style are likely to be interactive, positive and

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judgmental. This communication style is similar to techniques used in comprehensive-only sexuality education. The permissive style of parenting does not have an analogous sexuality curriculum (Kotchick, et.al, 2005). This issue of parental practices and style is critical and integral to this study as I attempt to determine the parents’ overall style of communication (parenting style), and both their opinion of school sexuality education and their manner of communicating with their children about sexuality. This I believe will respond to the Minister in establishing if parents are indeed the appropriate people to offer sexuality education to their children.The Minister interestingly wrote the foreword and signed off a report produced by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on behalf of the Department of Basic Education: with support from United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (2009) parents ought to teach their children about these matters and socialise them within this are of their development as they area and are indeed the ones that should furnish their children with information about their sexuality and development. This however highlights a missed opportunity because most parents are not knowledgeable and lack requisite abilities to talk comfortably with their children and feel disenfranchised to execute their parental roles in environments that increasingly advance children’s rights.

The generational knowledge gaps that exist between parents and their children and greater access now to education which invariably sees parents and children on different educational levels fuels this situation and makes parents to feel disempowered (Panday, Makiwane, Ranchod, C & Letsoalo, 2009:3) .This notwithstanding the fact that in numerous sub-Saharan African countries there is negligible focused parental participation in the sexual empowerment and development of young people also poses a challenge to this cause (Bastien, Kajula & Muhwezi, 2011).

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Bastien, et. al, (2011) reviewed works whose focus was on the extent to which parents and care givers communicate with the youth on sexuality and HIV/AIDS related matters. These works were peer reviewed and accordingly made available in a publication between 1980 and 2011. The publication critically found that communication in this area was reported to be strict and one-directional in nature (parent talking to, directing child) with parents giving ambiguous warnings rather than direct, open discussion. Their inquiry also reveals that parents and young people reported numerous obstructions to open discussion, including limited knowledge and lack of skills, as well as cultural customs and taboos.

An added dynamic to the parenting styles and practices is the gendered nature that sexuality education often happens. Pearson, Muller and Frisco (2006) submit that fathers may send sons and daughters different messages about sex and Coley, Votruba-Drzal, and Schindler (2009) in their study found that parenting in patriarchal families often involved activities that often protected the female child more than they do the male child.This Coley et.al (2009) found to be in line with studies previously conducted whose findings indicate that the sexual behaviours of girls may be affected by involvement and engagement of parents than those of their male counterparts. Other research have found activities where the families spend time together such as over meals where families actively seek to find out more about each other’s lives tend to be shielding for the female child more than they are for the male child in hazardous behaviours like the use of illicit substances. These may be due to girls’ greater receptiveness and openness to engaging emotionally and willingness to openly converse with parents over such periods and openly discuss what they are facing in their young lives (Coley et.al, 2009).

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This is in line with findings by Francis & DePalma (2014) who assert that fundamentally heteronormativity sees girls and boys brought up into distinct societally pre-determined roles based on their gender further perpetuating the patriarchal notion that of viewing this as the natural order of things. This study also found this to be true where parents who participated indicated that indeed they hold girls and boys to different sets of rules where girls are expected to protect themselves and indeed are protected by the parents and boys not so much.

2.5 Culture and Sexuality Education: An African Perspective

According to Delius and Glaser (2002), literature coming out of Southern African societies prior to colonisation and during its early stages point to evidence of extensive sexuality education as well as guidelines on these matters offered in African societies. Africans always prepared the young on issues associated with their sexuality in initiation schools. According to Matobo, Makatsa and Ebioha (2009), initiation as a term, originates from Latin initiare, to start, to introduce, an initiation, celebration of a secret religious service. It refers to ‘a partly sacred, partly profane ritual performed in most traditional groupings when young people enter into the pubescent phase of their lives, a rite of passage into adulthood. This is considered a critical period and sacred transition as compared to childhood because with it, is believed comes sexual as well as moral development and a being socially responsible. Leading and respected older men or women teach them about important cultural and religious issues such as social and sexual mores and religious traditions. Du Plooy (2006) notes that it is the initiation period when initiates receive instruction in various matters. Although tribal history and aspired values are instilled, it seems that much time is spent tutoring girls

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as to the roles of women, including their domestic, agricultural and marital duties, particularly in which case sex education receives much attention. The above demonstrates that the notion that there’s a cultural resistance to discussing sex and sexuality in African culture is inaccurate. What in fact is the case, is that it’s generally assumed that Africans do not talk about or want to talk about sexuality, or what current research proposes as “an awkward inter-generational silence” on issues of sexuality (Delius & Glaser, 2002: 30). Some note and observe this as the direct result of culture. What is often misunderstood is that Africans do talk about sex given the right context and circumstances.Airhihenbuwa (2007) asserts that the refusal to understand language elasticity has led to this misunderstanding, pointing out that the Dimba of Senegal discuss sex in the proper context; the Laobe nurture the production of eroticism in Senegalese culture to the point of educating young women about the production of sexual pleasure. The value of sensuality and behaviour about sexuality is often the hallmark of rites of passage presented by the old to the young (Airhihenbuwa, 2007).

What the above confirms is that there were designated people in African culture who educated the young. Parents in African societies still relied on other people to help their children transition from childhood to adulthood. So indeed, the discomfort and shyness that debilitates parents today and causes a situation that they cannot talk to their children is founded and based on a long history.

Moletstane (2011) and Francis and DePalma (2013) talk of nostalgia in addressing the issue of culture. Moletsane (2011: 193) reports on a reappearance of culture and tradition being used by individuals and indeed by the larger community as they attempt to assert who they are and go about expressing this identity., Moletsane (2011) highlights the fact that culture in this regard in most corners of society is used even in areas where this discourse is perhaps

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not conspicuous such as on sexuality matters as they pertain to girls and women and often times it is used as a regulatory (regulating how women and girls ought to dress and how they express their sexuality) and exclusionary (denying them the right to actively participate where decisions need to made) tool. (Moletsane 2011).

Moletsane (2011: 194) points specifically to a fruitless nostalgia an attempt to go back in time to an era [for a way of life] that is no longer in existence. It is particularly pertinent to address this issue in this study because the sort of nostalgia referred to here by Moletsane (2011) needs to be contextualised. The environment that these learners find themselves in has evolved since their parents time, and I question a renaissance of time gone past that fails to acknowledge and that is not cognisant of this reality. These learners, as has been earlier stated, are confronted with challenges that in a highly sexualised environment perhaps requires a conventionalism or traditionalism that takes these developments into account looking at the now and into the future as opposed to yester years. I argue that traditionalism must open up and engage its young and have meaningful dialogues around sexuality as opposed to “silencing” issues that unfortunately the youth are experiencing and experimenting with. The sort of silencing that Francis and DePalma (2013) refer to in the form of cultural taboos.

2.6 Religion and Sexuality

Religious institutions have been granted the right to create rules and offer expertise and direction for many aspects of human behaviour, including sexuality, the role of women, their reproduction, health education and care of the sick .The church and the secular movement have long been known not to agree on sexuality matters particularly on abstaining, on sex before marriage, extramarital sex, contraceptive use and homosexuality. (Mantella, Correale,

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Adams-Skinnera and Stein, 2011). Religion has been found to be one critical impediment to effective sexuality education taking place. In Africa today, evidence can be found within the Catholic Church as well as in some understandings of the Koran discouraging condom usage. This therefore is in line with the assertion that the sexual socialisation of teenagers was profoundly changed with the advent of Christianity. Missionaries upon arriving and living in African communities frowned upon and discouraged practices such as non- penetrative sex, initiations offered traditionally through initiation schools, polygamous marriages common in most African societies , masturbating and openly discussing sex and sexual matters (Macleod, 2009). Limiting or completely prohibiting sex and sexuality talk is seen by some religious leaders as their way preserving traditions, the culture and morality. This can also be seen with religious schools continuing to prohibit the teaching of sex education. This highly conflicts with modern day societies where increasingly the youth are re-defining who they are and where strong cases for personal choice are being made and strongly stood for (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 2008).

2.7 Politics and Sexuality

Life orientation and sexuality education beganprimarily as a platform for strengthened efforts on HIV prevention with children and young people (UNESCO, 2008; Francis, 2011; Smitha, Kippaxa, Aggletonb & Tyrerb, 2003). This included broader sex and reproductive health objectives including the preventing of STIs as well as unintended pregnancy (UNESCO, 2008). Sexuality education, however, has always been marred with highly charged political debate and contention initially over the two different types of curricula being offered of comprehensive, all inclusive sex education whose aim was to provide abstinence education as well as lessons on sexual development and health and abstinence only education whose

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aim was to teach leaners only how to abstain from sex (Collins, Alagiri & Summers, 2002). HIV/AIDS, one of the primary impetus for the development of sexuality education itself has a history of disputation and a political milieu that shaped the development of AIDS policies all over the world, but quite prominently in South Africa highlighting the deep political aspects of the AIDS crisis. UNESCO (2008), highlights the fact that preventing a problematic situation is often times challenging to galvanise political backing for, because this requires taking action on an issue whose occurrence cannot be guaranteed and perhaps this is one of the obstructions to a robust programme being implemented in the first place and also that there isn’t strong international leadership and support for sex education. UNESCO is however starting to show leadership in tackling this issue but needs to issue and offer guidance and evidence about what is effective to (UNESCO, 2008).

The South African Department of Education, working closely with the Department of Health and Welfare on the matter of youth sexuality as a direct consequence of HIV/AIDS, initiated and developed a policy on HIV and AIDS Education in 1995 (Visser 2005). This policy’s sole purpose was to initiate and advance a response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic that was afflicting the country by producing a curriculum in the schools with a life skills focus (Department of Education 1999).Five years later, the Outcomes-based Education (OBE) was introduced with sexuality education becoming a compulsory part of the Life Orientation (LO) learning area (Francis, 2011).

According to Naidoo (2006:1), within the overall development of human being sexuality development through education is very critical. Educating one about their sexuality is understood to be an enduring process where a person is expected to acquire and deepen knowledge in this area about issues like sexual identity, relationships and intimacy. It is in this

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learning process that peoples value systems and belief systems in this area are shaped and honed. Controversy in South Africa continues to surround the proposal that young people need to be taught about the romance associated with relationships, how to handle themselves and their sexual experiences and how to competently use condoms and contraceptives (Kirby 2002), as has been found to be the case in other parts of the world.

Mncube (2009: 84), highlights the attention that parental involvement in education has been receiving in recent times. He offers Epstein’s model of parental involvement which he uses to reinforce the idea that communication within the education system should take place between the home and the school reflecting therefore corporation between families and schools. He argues that teachers that have a working relationship with parents have a better understanding of their learners and find creative and new ways of resolving classroom challenges and experiences as opposed to predictable solutions and are able to co-create shared meaning and understanding with parents and learners. Parents that assume a more active and involved role are said to develop a deeper sense and appreciation of their role. Positive academic accomplishments and a variety of other commendable academic outcomes including higher grade-points averages have been associated with parental participation and contribution (Mncube 2009: 84). I indeed agree that this can lead to better understanding of self and development as it relates to sexuality.

A recent newspaper article quoted the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga telling parents that they should take responsibility for educating their children about sexuality issues and not “pass the buck” (Sunday Times, 2012). The honourable minister went on to point out the problem of teens falling pregnant was one that was brought in from the homes and communities where the learners come from and not one that emanates from the schooling

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system that sex does not happen within the schools but takes place when learners are at home and in the communities. This was in response to high pregnancy rates among teenage girls in schools in South Africa which as Statistics SA report in 2012 indicated that 160754 girls of school going age had fallen pregnant between July 2008 and July 2010.

Section 10.3 of the national policy places what it terms as the ‘ultimate responsibility’ for supervision of behavioural development on parents (Department of Education, 1999:23). Section 12.3 of this policy identifies the critical role players within the schooling community (within and outside of the school) and states that these role players have to jointly develop and implement an HIV and AIDS strategy for the learning institution (Department of Education 1999:25).

Abraham and Wight (1996) seem to agree with the minister and indeed with policies outlining guidelines for sexuality education that the home should take a leading role in driving and promoting programmes aimed at advancing healthy sexual behaviour amongst the youth. They argue that this does not negate the fact that offering sexual health education before the minimum school leaving age, meaning targeting the adolescent population in the school is in fact a more expansive and an all-inclusive way of tackling this issue. They highlight issues of uniformity and universality which are key when speaking of young people and attempting to alter their behaviour because of peer influences associated with this phase (Abraham and Wight, 1996).

The report on the Protecting the Right to Innocence: Conference on Sexuality Education (2001) highlights the importance of adopting a multi-sectoral response to what Naidoo (2006) postulates above. The consensus that was reached at this conference was that while sexuality education has a crucial role in shaping the youths ability to make knowledgeable decisions

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regarding their sexual development and decisions a more responsive strategy must be one that taps in the expertise of relevant role players (The report on the Protecting the Right to Innocence: Conference on Sexuality Education, 2001:17). Schaalma et.al (2004) assert that those tasked with promoting healthy sexualities amongst the youth ought to optimise galvanising parents support for an all-inclusive sex education so as to ensure that there’s agreement in terms of what should be taught as well as across the board acceptance of what is delivered in terms of the sexuality programmes designed for and delivered to the youth. This approach on the role of health promoters calls for the adoption of political activism in some contexts as the only means by which to advance this evidence-based practice.

The intentions of the government and the country at large in responding to the challenges that the children face are very noble, but fall short where parents seem to be the weak link, an observation that refutes what Schaalma et.al (2004) above propose. A recent colloquium held in Bloemfontein, the first of its kind in South Africa which aimed to open discussions and debates on how sexuality is taught, and should be taught to South African teens by teachers and society revealed that teachers, found that parents constantly warned that imparting knowledge about sex would ignite curiosity amongst the children and cause them to have sex prematurely (Mail & Guardian, 2013).

As part of the Teaching and Learning Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education (TALSHA), the University of the Free State team, that trained educators in the Free State on how to teach sexuality to their LO learners, the role of parents was a recurring concern amongst the teachers. Teachers reported that they often found themselves in a precarious situation where they are mandated to teach the subject matter but were always cautious of the parents’ reaction which sometimes saw parents taking up issue with the school accusing teachers of

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leading their children astray (Beyers, 2013). This is reinforced in Francis’s (2010) paper in which he writes that teachers reported that teaching about sexual matters often caused anxiety as some teachers were scared they may be accused of having encouraged sexual activity amongst learners, a notion that Beyers (2013) refutes stating that there exists a general misconception that sexuality education contributes to promiscuous sexual behaviour but that the benefits of sexuality education by far outweigh the negative consequences resulting from learners' ignorance, or from adults' conveying of distorted messages about sex.

Teachers have long been stating that they do not enjoy parental and school support in their attempt to deliver insightful and empowering sexuality education programmes in the schools. According to advocates for youth sexuality education, educators fear that dialogue on topics generally considered contentious like masturbation, sexual orientation, abortion and, increasingly, contraception, have the potential to threaten their careers. The ongoing deliberations and lack of consensus around appropriate content of such programmes and curriculum and the propagation controversies around this subject further dissuade teachers from handling this critical issue with learners (Donovan, 1998).

2.8 Wenger’s Theory of Communities of Practice

I draw on Wenger’s Communities of Practice to frame my exploration and understanding of parents’ expectations of Sexuality Education. Groups of people according (Wenger 2006) become communities of practice when there’s a shared, common interest, goal or problem which causes them to constantly interact as they attempt to address the issue they have in common. Communities of Practice according to Wenger (2006: 1) have three crucial characteristics: (1) the domain which is the shared interest, problem or goal. To become a member of the community of practice denotes that the person is invested in the domain and

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so what distinguishes members of this community of practice from any regular person is a thorough understanding of the shared issue the willingness to learn from each other and an understanding that collectively they are capable of finding answers and solutions to their problem or concern (2) The community, membership within the community of practice does not imply that people work together on a daily basis. Community in Wenger’s (2006) theory implies the ongoing engagement of members participating in activities when they deem it necessary in order to further their domain. Community in this regard, therefore, refers to communication that happens between members as they share knowledge given their different expertise as well as building relationships that enable them to help one another. (3) The practice, is what the community members do, the actual activities that they engage in to address their domain. They share experiences, stories, tools, and ways of solving problems. This they achieve through regular interacting.

Wenger (2006) proposes that these three essential elements make a group of people a community of practice. According to Wenger (2013:5) the perspective of communities of practice affects educational practices along three dimensions: (1) internally: in this sense Wenger (2013) speaks of how what is taught in the classroom, the educational experiences in school is supported and linked to what happens in the communities of where the learners are from so essentially bringing community activities into the classroom to inform learning (2) Externally: to be able to connect what learners are taught with what happens in the community by actually facilitating participation in community activities, either by bringing learners into the community or by bringing the community into the classroom (3) Over the lifetime of students: how to ensure that learning is not only confined to the schooling years of the learner, but to ensure that learners can continue to learn even after they have left school, by ensuring that communities of practice can offer this to learners.

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The basis of Wenger’s theory is that communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis (Wenger, 2006:1). Within a community of practice, members are said to be on trajectories. Trajectories can be considered learning paths that people follow (Wenger, 1998). They are not sequential levels of membership so much as relative positions within a community of practice based on knowledge, and length and level of engagement with others. That said, members often move from one trajectory to the next as they become increasingly entrenched in a community of practice. A person on a peripheral trajectory is one who may not have fully committed to participation in a community, but who is observing keenly and who is in the process is learning about the sociocultural elements of how the community functions. A peripheral trajectory need not lead to fuller participation, but may be satisfactory on its own (Wenger, 1998). The inbound trajectory is a path that leads one into increasing levels of active participation within a community of practice. People on inbound paths are the ones we most often identify as being learners in everyday experiences because they are likely to be the ones most actively engaged in asking questions or commenting on what they do not yet know. In other words, their main activities are the ones that we traditionally associate with learning.

Mapetla and Francis (2014) contend that in terms of the internal and external elements that Wenger speaks of, the teaching of sexuality education remains challenged. They note that the attention focused on sexuality education through extensive media coverage and public health mechanisms has been met with great opposition and resistance (Francis, 2010; Mapetla & Francis 2014). They continue that the prominence of the sexuality education discourse is met with clear and heated disapproval on one hand and on the other hand with a situation where its very existence is almost denied because of the resistant silences and denialism around this

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issue. This is clearly indicative of highly limited peripheral participation in the broader community where sexuality education is concerned and needs development to enable a real community of practice to function optimally. But as this theory postulates, there is a lot to be said about inbound trajectory as a path that leads people into increasing levels of active participation within a community of practice and with a proposed multi-sectoral approach involving the community, policy makers, parents and schools required to address youth sexuality, this theory becomes relevant and indeed critical. Additionally, Masinga (2007) makes explicit that parents and communities will also have to re-evaluate their own ways of being and assume the responsibility of being partners in the teaching and learning of the children and that Schools cannot on their own win the battle of talking about sexuality matters while the parents keep silent and the community pretends not to notice the need to change and communities of practice will ensure this.

Communities of practice as envisaged by Wenger have been highly critiqued for the flaws some have felt the theory has. Chief amongst these is the insufficient application of the role of power in communities of practice and situatedness (Smith & Lyles, 2011). Smith and Lyles (2011) also criticise this perspective for lack of historical perspective. Communities of practice as a theory is also set to fall short in its inability to explain and detail processes when people do not agree, when there are conflicting views and struggles beyond these just being strains caused by the entry of new people into the community (Hughes, Jewson & Unwin, 2007). The theory has also come under criticism for its inability to demonstrate the place and role of individual agency (Hughes, et. al, 2007; Malloch, Cairns, Evans, & O'Connor, 2010) and also falters in its strong emphasis on what is done as learning rather than approach what is actually learnt (Malloch, et.al, 2010). All these criticisms however are levelled at Wenger’s earliest

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work with Lave and fail to take into consideration latter work by Wenger (1998a; 2006) in which he expansively addresses this theory.

Notwithstanding all these, this theory is for me critical to my understanding and indeed exploring parent’s expectation particularly because of the latter work of Wenger (2006) where he looks at issues such as reification and participation, modes of belonging and economies of meaning which thoroughly addresses the issue of power (Wenger, 2006). This theory speaks directly to what is proposed in literature as a requirement for the optimal teaching and learning to take place, a multi-sectoral approach which Wenger (2006:3) terms social learning and explains it as a system exhibiting elements of emergent structure, complex relationships, self-organization, dynamic boundaries, ongoing negotiation of identity and cultural meaning, all aspects I want to explore and understand in this enquiry.

Wenger’s theory acknowledges that communities of practice form part of wider society encompassing other communities and that as such these social systems require a co-created and common background without which, these gaps could be a source of problems as people will be coming with their differing levels of commitment, incongruent value systems viewpoints which will all inadvertently compromise how they do things .I therefore argue that with communities of practice being a part of broader social systems, we cannot negate the need for a thorough understanding of the members’ culture and Ladson Billings’ theory of culturally relevant pedagogy which offers an opportunity for its integration into the schooling system to aid in the teaching and learning of sexuality education.

2.9 Ladson-Billings Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Perhaps Ladson Billings’ (1995) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy is the answer to the multi-sectoral approach needed to circumvent all the challenges plaguing the youth today.

Parent’s expectation of sexuality education: implications for teacher education